P-22.1 - Act to prevent and fight sexual violence in higher education institutions

Full text
3. Every educational institution must establish a policy to prevent and fight sexual violence.
The policy must take into account persons at greater risk of experiencing sexual violence, such as persons from sexual or gender minorities, cultural communities or Native communities, foreign students and persons with disabilities.
The policy must be separate from the institution’s other policies. In addition to any elements the Minister may prescribe, it must set out or provide for at least the following:
(1)  the roles and responsibilities of officers, personnel members, student association representatives and students with regard to sexual violence;
(2)  the implementation of prevention and awareness-raising measures to counter sexual violence, including legal information and mandatory training activities for students;
(3)  mandatory annual training activities for officers, personnel members, representatives of their respective associations and unions, and student association representatives;
(4)  safety measures to counter sexual violence, including infrastructure adjustments to secure premises;
(5)  rules for social or welcoming activities organized by the educational institution, a personnel member, an officer, a sports organization or a student association;
(6)  the measures the institution is to impose on third persons within the framework of its contractual relations;
(7)  procedures for reporting incidents of sexual violence to the educational institution or for filing complaints with or disclosing information to the institution in connection with such incidents, including the possibility of doing so at any time;
(8)  the follow-up that must be given to the complaints, reports and information received, and accommodation measures to protect the persons concerned and, if applicable, limit the impact on their studies;
(9)  the reception, referral, psychosocial and support services offered by specialized resources with sexual violence-related training;
(10)  the actions that must be taken by the educational institution and by officers, personnel members, student association representatives and students when incidents of sexual violence are brought to their attention;
(11)  the response times for accommodation measures to be implemented under subparagraph 8, services to be offered under subparagraph 9 and actions to be taken under subparagraph 10, which may not exceed 7 days, and the time frame for processing complaints, which may not exceed 90 days;
(12)  measures to ensure the confidentiality of the complaints, reports and information received in connection with incidents of sexual violence;
(13)  measures governing the communication to a person of the information necessary to ensure his or her safety but which may not include any means to compel a person to keep silent for the sole purpose of not damaging the educational institution’s reputation;
(14)  measures to provide protection against reprisals to the person who filed a complaint, reported an incident or disclosed information; and
(15)  the penalties applicable for policy breaches taking into account their nature, seriousness and repetitive pattern.
The policy must also include a code of conduct specifying the rules that a person who is in a teaching relationship with or a relationship of authority over a student must comply with if the person has an intimate relationship, such as an amorous or sexual relationship, with the student.
The code of conduct must include a framework aimed at avoiding any situation where such relationships could coexist if such a situation might affect the objectivity and impartiality required in the teaching relationship or relationship of authority or might encourage an abuse of power or sexual violence.
2017, c. 32, s. 3.